Bucking Cultural Norms, Asia Tries Liberal Arts

Ricky Wong for The Chronicle

Students rehearse a play at the fledgling international division of Peking U.'s high school, in Beijing. Parents say they hope the division's liberal-arts program will help their children learn to think critically.

By Karin Fischer

Guangzhou, China

On a recent fall morning, students filed into a classroom at Sun
Yat-sen University, whose leafy main campus hugs the banks of the
south-winding Pearl River. They thumbed last-minute text messages,
jockeyed for seats near the open windows, and shrugged off drooping
backpacks. Their massive Wheelock's Latin textbooks,
weighing in at more than two and a half pounds, hit their desks
with a deep thunk.